200 Years Forged Here
NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show - November 6-7, 2026
The 2026 Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow Nov. 6 and 7, 2026
200 Years Forged Here
“The Navy has both a tradition and a future ─ and we look with pride and confidence in both directions.” ‾ Admiral George Anderson, Chief of Naval Operations, August 1961
Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, known as the “Cradle of Naval Aviation,” will celebrate its 200 th Birthday at the 2026 NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow, scheduled Nov. 6 and 7.
This year’s NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow is designed to highlight the air station’s bicentennial, highlighting its historic legacy, enduring strategic value and continued relevance to today’s mission. Having the distinction of being the last event of the 2026 Airshow season, the annual NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow is an eagerly anticipated annual event, drawing more than 300,000 visitors to the ‘Cradle of Naval Aviation.’ 200 Years Forged Here The 2026 NAS Pensacola Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow – themed 200 Years Forged Here – is a two-day spectacle embracing the heritage of our nation’s great sea services and looks to the future of our continued maritime excellence, celebrating two centuries of U.S. Navy presence in the Florida Panhandle. The theme of this year’s Airshow is representative of both NAS Pensacola’s two centuries as the premier U.S. Navy facility in Northwest Florida as well as one of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Daryl Caudle’s priorities – the Foundry: ‾ “ The Foundry represents the enduring sum of our total force, shore infrastructure, maintenance depots, schoolhouses, industrial base and intellectual capital required to generate, sustain and modernize naval power. Every ounce of sea power we wield originates in the Foundry; it is the bedrock of our Navy.” With 60 percent of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps service members beginning their careers at NAS Pensacola, the air station is definitively a Navy Foundry, enabling the Fleet to be ready to Fight. Additionally, in celebrating the 200 th Birthday of NAS Pensacola, we will continue honoring the determination, bravery, sacrifice and resilience of the aviators, aircrewmen, aviation maintenance technicians and information warfare specialists who began their careers at the ‘Cradle of Naval Aviation.’
Through generations of service members, our link to our shared heritage and legacy exists and will continue and persevere into the future.
History Two centuries ago, upon realizing the advantages of Pensacola Harbor and the large timber reserves nearby for shipbuilding, President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard decided to build a Navy yard on the Southern tip of Escambia County, where the air station is today. Construction began in April 1826, and the Pensacola Navy Yard would go on to become one of the best equipped naval stations in the country. During the Civil War, the Pensacola Navy Yard was destroyed, as was most of the city. In 1911, the Pensacola Navy Yard was closed, a victim of a final yellow fever epidemic in 1905 and a devastating hurricane in 1906. Three years later, however, the station would reopen as the nation’s first aeronautical base, eventually becoming Naval Air Station Pensacola.
1 Proceeds from the Air Show benefit the military and their family members directly through the Quality of Life Pro grams and services provided by the station’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) program, a nonprofit organization. 2 MWR Sponsorship Coordinator | NAS Pensacola 850-452-5056 | Pensacolamarketing@us.navy.mil Morale, Welfare & Recreation Department | 450 Radford Blvd., Bldg. 4143 | Pensacola, FL 32508 NASPensacolaAirShow.org Sponsorship dollars benefit our military and their families directly through quality of life programs. 2
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